This Team Canada may not be the most high-flying or superstar-studded of Team Canada teams, but its puck sense and defensive acumen are off the charts, with both coming through in Canada’s 1 to 0 win over the United States on Friday.

The highly-skilled American team, led by dynamic attackers Patrick Kane and Phil Kessel, were shut down by Team Canada when it counted. In the third period, the Americans could only manage one Grade A scoring chance against Team Canada.

Overall, Team Canada outchanced the Americans 22 to 14, though it was closer when it came to Grade A chances, Team Canada with nine, the USA with seven. Whenever the Americans got close, though, Carey Price thwarted them. He hardly had a shaky moment in net the entire game.

The essence of defence is hard and smart work, things like staying on the right side of your check, shoulder checking to cover the slot, stopping and starting to stay in front of your man, keeping your stick free to poke-check or block passing lanes and backchecking hard. Team Canada did all of these with a furious precision.

Leading the way was Sidney Crosby’s line. It didn’t score, but otherwise played a near perfect game. Chris Kunitz has been criticized in this tournament, including by me, but he was solid on Crosby’s wing, chipping in on eight scoring chances and making a mistake on not a single scoring chance against. Patrick Bergeron, the third member of the line, chipped in on nine scoring chances at even strength and made a mistake on just on chance against.

The three played a heady, cagey game, one or two steps ahead of the Americans and were unlucky not to score.

While the game was tense, the Americans had an inability to mount sustained offensive pressure. This was no fault of their own.

Team Canada, led by its top line of smart pucksters, simply smothered them.

David Staples is an Edmonton Journal columnist and a regular contributor to The Cult of Hockey blog

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